ODD FISH, ALL-the sea dragon
and its relatives, the sea horse and
the pipefish, belong to the suborder
Syngnathoidei. All have bodies en
cased in a bony armor, and most have long
ish snouts. While sea dragons are apparently
limited to the offshore waters of Australia,
several kinds of sea horses and pipefish are
scattered throughout tropical and temper
ate waters, including the Gulf of Mexico and
the Caribbean.
Clasping a stalk of alga with his prehen
sile tail (left), an Australian male sea horse
displays a markedly swollen brood pouch.
Whereas the male sea dragon carries the
eggs on the underside of the tail itself, the
male sea horse carries them concealed in a
pouch under the tail and ejects the newly
hatched brood in multiple spasms after an
incubation period of about ten days. This
ten-centimeter (4-in) specimen shares the
same general habitat as the sea dragon.
More streamlined than either the sea
horse or sea dragon, a brightly colored ghost
pipefish (above), about eight centimeters
long, darts about more swiftly than its slow
moving relatives. Photographed in Sydney's
harbor at a depth of about ten meters, this
ornate specimen looks like so much dancing
sunlight when seen in its usual environment
among billowing fields of multicolored
seaweed.
MtIUPOAMPUSBREVICEPS(LEFT); SOLENOSTOMUSPARADOXUS(ABOVE)
Australian ichthyologist Alison Reynolds
(below), who made numerous dives to col
lect some of the specimens for this article,
surfaces following a descent south of Mel
bourne. After gingerly combing with bare
fingers through dense beds of kelp, she
emerges with three Phyllopteryx-a preg
nant male nearly thirty centimeters long,
center, an adult female, and a youngster
bizarre dragons of the sea that St. George
himself would have marveled at.
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